11 



they should therefore be entirely eschewed or used only with great caution when 

 their other and valuable properties are urgently needed." 



All must sympathize with Dr. Lankester when he speaks so decidedly 

 against the apathy and ignorance of governments — in their neglect of science 

 and their questionable treatment of scientific men by the administrative depart- 



Wm 



m 



LORD LISTER 

 President B. A. S. (1896). 



ments of the government. He looked upon the British Association as one of 

 the greatest means of spreading a knowledge of the results of science and a love 

 for it amongst all members of the community. 



THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF RESEARCH. 



The large number of members and the comparative inexpensiveness of its 

 management has always enabled the British Association to have at its command 

 considerable sums of money for the encouragement of research. One of its 

 best acts was the taking over the Observatory at Kew, which did valuable ser- 

 vice by its investigations in magnetism, meteorology, and physics. For a num- 

 ber of years £600 was annually granted until, in 1871, the Observatory was 

 handed over to the Royal Society, which had received large sums for its main- 

 tenance. During the first ten years of its existence the Association gave no less 

 than £ 1 ,400 for the study of tides and waves on the sea. Recognizing the need 



